Purpose

To demonstrate http server with GET and POST handlers, written in nodejs using expressjs framework. Please contrast the code here with the code in node-simple-rest-app

How does it work

(0) Get the dependencies (these have been specified in package.json)

npm install

(1) Start the server

./node_modules/.bin/supervisor app.js

Using supervisor allows you to make changes to the application code and see the changes on running application immediately, without requiring application restart. This is called hot code deployment.

(2) On browser go to:

http://localhost:3000/?key=a

You should see that apple shows up in the browser. This is because data.json contains key value pairs, where apple corresponds to a, fan corresponds to f etc.

Try: http://localhost:3000?key=f

Now try: http://localhost:3000?key=z This should show Not found if nothing exists corresponding to z

(3) From a separate command prompt, execute the following command:

curl -XPOST -H 'Content-Type: application/json' 'http://localhost:3000/newData' -d '{ "z": "zebra" }'

This is a POST http request (we are also adding a http header saying that the request body is of type json). This intends to add zebra value corresponding to z key in data.json. Verify that a new entry corresponding to z now exists in data.json.

Also, you would get a response saying: Your data is saved: {"a":"apple","f":"fan","e":"elephant","b":"bat","z":"zebra"}

Now try to go to http://localhost:3000?key=z on browser.

(4) From browser go to:

http://localhost:3000/multi?key1=z&key2=f

This should show value1 is zebra and value2 is fan as response.

This example is to illustrate the use of routes.